2009-03-03

March 5 is the Square Root of Christmas

I just wanted to make the announcement, if anyone happened to be unaware. The reason for the holiday, if you haven't guessed already, is because sqrt(1225) = 35. Translating those numbers into calendar dates gives us the square root of Christmas 12/25 falling on 3/5.
It just so happens that there is another big nerd holiday in March, Pi Day (3/14). Why not connect these two dates with a week(ish) long nerd celebration? I hereby declare that:

March 5th shall be known as the Square Root of Christmas and

The 10-day interval between the Square Root of Christmas and Pi Day shall be known as Nerdigras

(1) There is only one true way to write dates: The international standard ISO-8601. Anyone who does it differently is an ignorant savage.

(2) December 25 if the 359th or 360th day of the year. sqrt(359) =18.9... So, rounding up, sqrt(Christmas) should be January 19.

(3) It's kinda arbitrary to use January 1 as the first day of the year. For a long time, March 1 was considered the beginning of the year, especially before they started numbering years. This is why they are not called OCTober, NOVember, and DECember anymore. And why leap day falls the day before March 1. That would make sqrt(Christmas) = March 17.

(4) Why are we counting in days? The SI unit of time is the second. I'll leave the consequence of that fact as an exercise for the student.